Upload Speed / Ping Severely Limited in Normal Mode

[coffeeAchiever]

System: PC
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V Deluxe
Network Adapter: Intel 82579V Gigabit (built into mobo)
RAM: 32GB
OS: Win7 (64bit) Ultimate, service pack 1, fully updated.
CPU: Core i7-3770 @ 3.50GHz
Drives: OS and main apps on SSDs. Music/video on SATA 3

Problem
Something is severely limiting my upload speed; ping time is also affected. Download speed appears to be unaffected. The problem goes away in safe mode. Here are the numbers:

The problem disappears in safe mode, so it's either driver, start-up service, or an auto-run user application. I'm also not ruling out virus. I don't generally engage in risky behavior, but there are occasions where maybe I haven't been as careful as I should be.

Also, my wife's computer appears to be unaffected -- she gets the same timings as my computer when I boot into safe mode.

Obviously it's not feasible to keep rebooting while disabling programs, drivers, and services. How can I diagnose this?

I *think* the problem first appeared a week or two ago. I tried to upload some stuff to Google drive and noticed it was painfully slow. At the time, I thought it was Google Drive. Last night I ran speedtest, and found it wasn't them. It was me! Unfortunately, if I restored the computer to a previous time using system protection, it would erase some applications I've installed since then, so Windows repair is a more attractive prospect for me.

However, I want to use Windows repair as a last resort: I'd prefer to fix this manually rather than use a ham-fisted approach.


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Edit: The information I've collected doesn't really seem to be helpful, but in case someone can spot something, here's what I've collected:

Autoruns:
https://www.hightail.com/download/UlRUZGVUVEhwM2xESjlVag

AdapterWatch:
https://www.hightail.com/download/UlRUZGVRYTJtNEl3anNUQw
https://www.hightail.com/download/UlRUZGVRYTI5bEJEZU1UQw
https://www.hightail.com/download/UlRUZGVRYTJlcEs5TE5Vag
https://www.hightail.com/download/UlRUZGVRYTJ3NUpjR01UQw
https://www.hightail.com/download/UlRUZGVRYTJiV3pMYnRVag

TCPView:
https://www.hightail.com/download/UlRUZGVkbTgzeUpjR01UQw

 

[Carobthomp]

Definitely going to be software related as you thought if it's not an issue in safe mode. I would start by running a couple of AV scans/Anti-Malware/Spyware scans (malwarebytes/super-anti spyware, etc). If that fails and doesn't fix it then I would also start exploring more in depth about what is using up networking.

Obviously any streaming service/torrenting service will implement high loss if you are seeding a ton.

 

[coffeeAchiever]

I've done full scans with MS Security Essentials, ClamWin, and Spybot Search & Destroy. I know the last two don't have the best reputation, but ClamWin does get updated quite often. Nada.

I downloaded and ran a full scan with Malwarebytes, which detected something:

Rogue.Multiple, C:\ProgramData\374311380, , [0fc6f94573093cfa4079ef0eba4833cd],
PUP.Optional.DealsFinderPro.A, C:\ProgramData\DealsFinderPro, , [0cc956e880fcae889c533bf62ad98977],
PUP.Optional.DealsFinderPro.A, C:\Program Files (x86)\DealsFinderPro, , [7560a5992b5183b3d41cfe3310f3dc24],

The DealsFinder directories are leftover cruft that got added to my system when I installed ... I don't remember. I think it was something I installed from CNET download. I was surprised it got installed, but I removed references to it in the registry and its main directories in Program Files. Guess I missed entries in ProgramData.

I quarantined the items (precisely what does quarantining mean? is it still on my hard drive somewhere?) and re-ran Malwarebytes for good measure, and it came up clean.

Malwarebytes got through my registry surprisingly quickly. I was expecting that to take much longer than it did.

Anyhow, predictably, it didn't change my upload speed. Argh!


I looked at network usage in depth, and there's nothing eating my bandwidth. The biggest network "hog" is Firefox, at a measely 375 B/sec up, 3kB/sec down. Total network IO varies between 0 and 3 kbps. I know these two statements are contradictory, but maybe it's telling me that on average, there's very low network activity with a high variance (like the occasional loading of a webpage).

Something tells me it's not hardware or virus related.

Any other ideas?

Just out of curiosity, if I did a Windows repair via the Win7 install disk, what will I lose in the process?

 

[Carobthomp]

I've done full scans with MS Security Essentials, ClamWin, and Spybot Search & Destroy. I know the last two don't have the best reputation, but ClamWin does get updated quite often. Nada.

I downloaded and ran a full scan with Malwarebytes, which detected something:

Rogue.Multiple, C:\ProgramData\374311380, , [0fc6f94573093cfa4079ef0eba4833cd],
PUP.Optional.DealsFinderPro.A, C:\ProgramData\DealsFinderPro, , [0cc956e880fcae889c533bf62ad98977],
PUP.Optional.DealsFinderPro.A, C:\Program Files (x86)\DealsFinderPro, , [7560a5992b5183b3d41cfe3310f3dc24],

The DealsFinder directories are leftover cruft that got added to my system when I installed ... I don't remember. I think it was something I installed from CNET download. I was surprised it got installed, but I removed references to it in the registry and its main directories in Program Files. Guess I missed entries in ProgramData.

I quarantined the items (precisely what does quarantining mean? is it still on my hard drive somewhere?) and re-ran Malwarebytes for good measure, and it came up clean.

Malwarebytes got through my registry surprisingly quickly. I was expecting that to take much longer than it did.

Anyhow, predictably, it didn't change my upload speed. Argh!


I looked at network usage in depth, and there's nothing eating my bandwidth. The biggest network "hog" is Firefox, at a measely 375 B/sec up, 3kB/sec down. Total network IO varies between 0 and 3 kbps. I know these two statements are contradictory, but maybe it's telling me that on average, there's very low network activity with a high variance (like the occasional loading of a webpage).

Something tells me it's not hardware or virus related.

Any other ideas?

Just out of curiosity, if I did a Windows repair via the Win7 install disk, what will I lose in the process?

As far as Malwarebytes goes, when it quarantines an item, it doesn't remove it completely from the HDD (technically), however it essentially places it in a secure container and removes/fixes the corrupted file in the registry, or elsewhere.

The Windows 7 Repair disk should offer you some different options ranging from system restore (minimal file loss, if any) all the way to a full format, where you would lose everything.

Anything I can think of has been proven out at this point to not be the issue. I'm assuming this is already the case, but are you able to confirm that you are running the speedtests noted above on the same website and server each time in the examples given?

 

[coffeeAchiever]

As far as Malwarebytes goes, when it quarantines an item, it doesn't remove it completely from the HDD (technically), however it essentially places it in a secure container and removes/fixes the corrupted file in the registry, or elsewhere.

The Windows 7 Repair disk should offer you some different options ranging from system restore (minimal file loss, if any) all the way to a full format, where you would lose everything.

Anything I can think of has been proven out at this point to not be the issue. I'm assuming this is already the case, but are you able to confirm that you are running the speedtests noted above on the same website and server each time in the examples given?

Well.... interestingly enough, I actually found the answer, and it was right here on Tom's Hardware. LOL. But to be fair, it took me a LOT of work to find...

Inspiration (or desperation) led me to killing every process on the system, one by one, and running a speed test after every process was killed. It took me, literally, *hours*, but I actually found the process responsible. It was called NetSVCHelp, and then from that, I was able to Google a little bit more effectively:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/312236-30-beware-asus-network-icontrol-kill-upload-speeds

I removed that piece of software (which is supposed to make network access better, LOL) and my uploads shot back up to 10 Mb/s.

On an even happier note, I had called my ISP earlier to see if there was anything they could think of. The woman said no, but noted that my account was eligible for upgrade from 100 down to 300 down, and from 10 up to 20 up. So now, not only is my problem fixed, but my download speed is tripled and upload doubled. I may have spent a full day on this problem, but I'm sitting pretty now. ;-) But yeah, that took WAAAY longer than it should've.

I'm not sure what caused that process to go schizo. I normally don't install the crapware that comes with mobos, but for some reason when I built this system I figured I would. Basically, I got the flu shot and caught the flu. Never again...